Kumpulan Artikel
Mengenai Peristiwa Ambon
Mengenai Peristiwa Ambon
Program Kerja | Koleksi | Anggota | Indeks Artikel
While Elephants fight, the people of Maluku are crushed in between -------------------------------------------------------------- By George J. Aditjondro IN Indonesia, we have a saying, "while the elephants fight, the dwarf deer (pelanduk) dies in the middle," which literally means, that while the big powers are fighting, the small people are crushed in between. This saying applies very appropriately to the situation in Maluku, popularly known as the Spice Islands. Hence, I have used that old saying to title this paper. Lately, since the forced evacuation of the Indonesian Armed Forces from Timor Loro Sa'e (East Timor), a nation they had ravaged for nearly a quarter of a century, and after the Indonesian Armed Forces' dual function has been successfully dismantled, influencing the social legitimacy of the Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Sukarnoputri regime, old methods to instigate so-called "horizontal conflicts" have been revived. For more than a year now, the people of the Maluku islands recently divided capital, and the province of North Maluku with Ternate as its capital have been embroiled in a "civil war" between Muslims and Christians. Fatalities have so far reached 2000, a high percentage of the population of 2 million. News about the incidents have spread orally for a year, and now, information that has long been disseminated through the Internet has finally made it to the pages of the mass media: The chain of sectarian conflict in Maluku now spreading throughout Sulawesi, Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara and Java have been triggered and fed by a number of provocators paid by the Suharto family and several of his cronies. That is the result of monitoring by the Halmahera sociologist, Thamrin Amal Tomagola, an professor at the University of Indonesia's Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and two human rights organizations, KONTRAS (Commission for Missing People & Victims of Violence Acts) and Komnas HAM (Indonesian Human Rights Commission). The indications became clearer after Komnas HAM discovered fake documents in the streets of Ambon inciting the population to religious war, following a string of bloody events in the area (Sydney Morning Herald, 15 January 2000). Four provocators whose names have come up are Butje Sarpara, Dicky Wattimena, Yorris Raweyai, and Brigadier General Kivlan Zein. Sarpara is a former teacher from North Maluku, who has also been head of the Agricultural Office in Jayapura (now Port Numbay) in West Papua. Colonel Wattimena is a former member of the Presidential Security Corps (PASWALPRES) and former Mayor of Ambon. Yorris Raweyai is the deputy chair of the Pancasila Youth, close to Bambang Trihatmodjo, the second son of former President Suharto. While Brigadier General Kivlan Zein, whose initial had already been mentioned by Abdurrahman Wahid, early last year, is allegedly involved in recruiting drop-outs from the Indonesian Military Academy near Mount Tidar in Central Java. Hence, these failed army officers, who do master enough martial skills, are called the "Eks-Tidar Group" (Xpos, 4-10 March 1999; Detikcom, 3 March 1999; Jakarta Post, 18 January 2000; Waspada, 18 January 2000; Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 2000). These provocators do not work alone. In particular, Yorris Raweyai, whose formal residence is in Jakarta but, in collaboration with Yapto Suryosumarno, chair of the Pancasila Youth, is reported to be involved in provocationary activities to incite ethnic conflict in other provinces, for example West Kalimantan, where the Malay and Dayak ethnic groups who, last year were comrades in arms against Madurese migrants are beginning to wage a bloody conflict against each other (SiaR, 16 April l999). In Ambon itself, the provocators need only to incite Christian and Muslim gangs of young delinquents to spark conflict. These gangs in turn have their respective "bosses" in Jakarta, who are attempting to gain the support of Suharto's children. The gang of Christian delinquents is named Cowok Keristen (Christian Boys), shortened to Coker, and uses the Maranatha Protestant church as headquarters. In Jakarta, they are connected to two Moluccan Christian youths, Milton Matuanakota and Ongky Pieters. This gang of Moluccan Christian youths dominate the shopping centre, parking area and gambling dens in West Jakarta. After the Ketapang incidents in Jakarta, November 1998, where four of Ongen's boys died, hundreds of Milton and Ongky's followers moved to Ambon. In Jakarta, antagonists of the Milton and Ongky group are represented by Ongen Sangaji, a Pancasila Youth activist and coordinator of a Moluccan Muslim university student organization. Many members of this group were recruited into the PAM Swakarsa (civilian security troops) used by then Chief of Armed Forces, General Wiranto, and Acting President Habibie to cordon off the Senayan parliament building from university students protesting the Extraordinary Session of the MPR in November l998. Meanwhile, Ongen is reported to have close ties to Bambang Trihatmodjo, while Milton is said to be closer to Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, aka Tutut. Other reports state that Ongen, whose task was to recruit North Moluccan delinquents into the PAM Swakarsa during the MPR extra-ordinary session, received funds from Tutut and a retired army general close to the Suharto family, Abdul Gafur, who also hails from North Maluku. Tutut and Gafur are both involved in setting up a foundation, Yayasan Kesejahteraan Masyarakat Indonesia (YAKMI), which mobilized about 10,000 PAM Swakarsa troops armed with sharp bamboo spears to fight against the unarmed students near the Semanggi bridge near Senayan (van Klinken, n.d.; HRW l999:8; SiaR, 24 November 1998, 26 & 29 January 1999; Xpos, 28 January - 3 February 1999). The bloody conflict in Maluku does not involve only those civilians, retired army officers and allegedly one active general. Active military and police are also suspected by Tamagola to be involved in practices to incite conflict. He is of the opinion that the network of provocators can be traced back to connections with former Minister of Defense and Security, Armed Forces Commander General Wiranto (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 January 2000). (Indonesia version)
Program Kerja | Koleksi | Anggota | Indeks Artikel